Фахівчиня/ць з моніторингу, оцінки, обліку та навчання – Львів/ MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning) / Officer – Lviv

Location: Ukraine – Lviv with frequent travel to Odesa and Dnipro

Duration: 12 months renewable 

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary starting from 1,614 Euros depending on proven relevant experience for the post. Moving allowance of EUR 600 will be provided if staff has to move from the original base. 

Starting date: October 2023

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. 

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

 At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its Members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

Context in Ukraine

On 24th February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas controlled by Russian forces as well as cities under siege. Aerial attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with 6.24 million displaced within Ukraine and 7.68 million refugees having fled to neighboring countries. By October 26, OCHA had counted 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. 

 Amid the upcoming winter, which is anticipated to be the worst in decades, at least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, in addition to preparing the population for the approaching winter, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to secure access to recently liberated and recaptured areas in the East and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine. 

 CARE UKRAINE

As a new actor in Ukraine, CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs, local authorities, and INGOs with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women-Led and Women’s Rights organizations (WLOs/ WROs), who are at the forefront of the response, in order to strengthen their voice and leadership in the overall humanitarian response and decision making. By January 2023, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with fourteen local/national organizations (including six WLOs/WROs). As a result of these partnerships, over 600,000 people have been reached across Ukraine, including in areas along the line of contact. CARE Ukraine has four established offices in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa and is currently in the process of opening additional field antennas.

Role Objectives: 

The MEAL Officer is primarily responsible for establishing and overseeing a functional MEAL system for

the projects with a strong focus on outcomes monitoring, quality standards and impact evaluations. 

One important component of the role is institutional learning to contribute to adaptative management with the goal of improving the quality of programs and of assistance delivered to project participants.  Due to the locally led nature of CARE humanitarian response in Ukraine, the role includes a strong focus on building the capacities of implementing partners while recognizing their extensive knowledge and experience on the local context. 

The MEAL officer is working under the supervision of the MEAL Manager. S/he provides technical support to MEAL team in the AOs.

The position holder will be essentially responsible for:

1. MEAL Systems and Processes

• Support MEAL Manager in developing the MEAL plan during the proposal stage.
• Develop M&E workplan for each grant and trace the implementation in close coordination and collaboration with AO MEAL officers.
• Support in mentoring and tracing the findings of M&E monitoring visits.
• The main responsible and accountable in developing ITTs and ensuring the quality and accuracy of reported figures.
• Ensure that MEAL activities are aligned with project objectives and donor requirements.
• Ensure quality of data collected by partners and field teams.
• Conduct the MEAL session during the kick-off meeting for new projects ensuring implementing teams (CARE and partners) understand the MEAL requirements before the start of the project’s implementation.
• Ensure proper monitoring field visits are conducted for each project by AO MEAL Officers on a weekly basis and participate in relevant field visits regularly.

1. MEAL Tools and Activities

• Support in the technical development and/or review of all required MEAL tools for new projects in coordination with MEAL staff from CARE and partners (including but not limited to baseline surveys, assessment tools, registration tools, distribution lists, surveys tools for PDM or PAM, focus group discussion, onsite quality checklist, etc.).
• Ensure outcome monitoring tools and quality checklists are available, updated and used with a specific focus on ensuring that adequate gender and power analysis has taken place.
• Develop, review and document progress under gender markers, resilience markers and governance markers in line with the standards and methodologies promoted by CARE International.

 Reporting

• Ensure the monthly reporting requirements and schedules are met by working closely with AO MEAL staff from CARE and partners to ensure timely and quality data, collection, analysis, and reporting (monthly requirements includes narrative, and indicators tracking tables).
• Review all MEAL reports produced by partners, ensure constructive feedback is given to partner staff with relevant follow and support provided.
• Combine and produce MEAL reports from the conducted MEAL activities by AO MEAL team and partners for each grant.
• Coordinate and compile MEAL inputs for interim and final donors reporting reviewing all incoming MEAL data from staff, third party monitoring (TPM) and partners.
• Participate in regular progress review meetings organized by grant managers for all active projects to provide updates about MEAL activities and progress.

1. Accountability and Learning

• Review monthly reports received from partners to generate learning and contribute to adaptative management, facilitate decision making and inform program design.
• Promote organizational learning and ensure timely documentation, publication and sharing of lessons learned and successful approaches from program implementation and finding of evaluations, research, and studies with various stakeholders internally and externally.
• Support MEAL Manager in organizing cross-sector learning events such mid-term review workshops for active projects with partners after 6 months of implementation to review progress and promote adaptative management based on ongoing learning and conclusion from accountability mechanisms.
• Ensure all required documentation is collected and archived where CARE staff and partners can easily access findings and lessons learned (including on CARE evaluation library).
• Work closely with the accountability officer to ensure the different channels of the feedback and accountability mechanisms are being promoted and used by CARE and partners’ staff to share information with and collect information from local communities.

1. Capacity building and Management

• Provide sufficient support and guidance to AO MEAL team to achieve the tasks/objectives in the best quality possible while ensuring an open and engaging environment focused on supportive supervision, constructive feedback, recognition of effort and respect of work/life balance.
• Assess the MEAL capacities of implementing partners and develop capacity building plan for each partner in coordination with the MEAL Manager to ensure that staff and partners fully understand the function of MEAL in quality assurance and strengthen a culture of open reflection and improvement.
• Organize and/or conduct capacity building sessions for the MEAL staff of CARE and implementing partners through mentoring, coaching and trainings to address the capacity gaps identified in running the MEAL system and activities and using the different MEAL tools. 

Essential criteria:

Mandatory:

• University degree in social sciences, development, program evaluation, data science, economic policy, econometrics and operations research, or a related field.
• Minimum 1-2 years of experience working in monitoring, evaluation, and research for NGOs in the humanitarian or development sectors.
• Strong written and oral Ukrainian and English skills.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis using appropriate analytical methods; design and implement quantitative and qualitative rapid appraisals, etc.
• Strong ability and interest in working with local partners and building their capacities.
• Expected:
• Strong skills in Excel and experience with Power BI or other data management and visualization software.
• Experience with mobile data collection tools (Kobo, or others)
• Good organizational skills and ability to work independently, manage time and execute tasks.
• Ability to work as part of a team and culturally sensitive and able to work in multi-cultural team.
• Unquestionable personal code of ethics, integrity, diversity, and trust.
• Strong belief in human rights and gender equality.
• Strong confidentiality ethic, demonstrate flexibility, and versatility in adjusting to changing environments and requirements as necessary.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of our activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates. 

 Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices. 

 How to Apply:

Please send your complete application package (CV, motivation letter, references) only in English to [email protected] with MEAL Officer-Lviv as the subject of the email by no later than 5 of October 2023 . Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for the job. 

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. References will only be contacted after the interview.      

[email protected]